1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to the field of computers, and specifically to application servers. Still more specifically, the present invention relates to application servers communicating with telephone networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
An application server is typically part of a distributed service that provides and manages software to clients across multiple computing platforms, often in an on-demand manner. This distributed service typically includes distributed application and web servers that host the software, edge servers that load balance supply and demand of such software, remote servers, application integration and connectivity middleware, process integration infrastructure, networking support, portal and software development support, and other system management services.
Application servers that are part of such a distributed service communicate with clients using protocols from the Internet Protocol (IP) suite, which include HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), Internet Protocol (IP), etc. Typically, however, such application servers are unable to directly communicate with Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTNs), including those that utilize the Signaling System 7 (SS7) protocol. Thus, if a user/manager/developer of a PSTN wishes to avail his network of software from an application server, there is no seamless and transparent method for accomplishing this.